Surprise!
by whenjenn
Summary: Some tackling, almost concussions, and good ol' Ferris wheels. 2nd installment of the STEEL series, a special shipping for one of my friends and her 'crush.' 1st one was Full Circle Around the Christmas Tree. No need to read the 1st one to understand.


AN: My friend Linda wrote most of it. I wrote some of it. She's amazing btw.

SURPRISE!

"No! I refuse to go!" he exclaimed hoarsely, stomping around the room.

"Why?" It was a simple question.

"I'm probably going to be the only guy there!" He paused from his tirade to look pointedly at her.

"…it's just a get-together." She slowly replied. He squinted at her and scowled.

"I bet you I'm the only guy going."

"Stephen, Jenn just wanted to have some people over before her winter break got all hectic." She said, sighing.

"Ariel! That is not the point! How come I can't stay with the guys and watch the game?" he whined, plopping down on the couch.

"Because she said she had a surprise for both of us and if you didn't turn up, it would seem rude!" Ariel said allegedly. Stephen sighed and ran a hand through his matted hair, most likely thinking of ways on how to get out of the party. Coming up with nothing, he leaned back on the couch and sat there with a pout on his face. _A surprise, eh? Maybe I should go, poke around and see if I can find it, _he thought.

"Who else is going?" he asked as carefully as he could without being close to consenting. Ariel smiled; she was fully aware that he was going.

"You, me and some other people." He looked up.

"As in?" Ariel shrugged. It was kind of odd, suddenly having a get-together. Ariel was kind of suspicious seeing as she was invited to this grouping when she had walked in on Jennnifer and Linda whispering together in hushed tones during lunch.

**_-Flashback-_**

"Naw…Ariel's not gunna.. whisper whisper"

"I bet you she will...whisper whisper"

"Next weekend…whisper whisper"

"Yeah, I probably have some...whisper whisper"

**BAM!**

Jennnifer and Linda jumped out of their seats, the latter tripping and falling backwards onto some backpacks.

"Hey guys." Ariel popped up out of nowhere, next to her humongous stack of books.

"Ugh...Didja have to scare us like that?" Linda groaned and sat up, rubbing her head.

"Well you guys looked so absorbed in your conversation that I decided I'd join in." Ariel narrowed her eyes and shot a glare at Jennnifer.

"We weren't doing anything!" Jennnifer grinned, raising her hands in mock terror.

"We were just talking about the little gathering we're gunna have at her house next weekend, right Jenn?" Linda smirked as she got up and brushed herself off. Ariel cocked an eyebrow and stared at Jennnifer.

"Of course! Well, Ariel, how about it? You should come with Stephen." Jennnifer grinned widely.

"Umm, I probably can come, but about Stephen…" Ariel trailed off.

"What about him?" Linda inquired, curious.

"He might be a bit hard to persuade." Jenn and Linda shot each other a look before Jenn replied,

"We could just mention it to him and try to coax him into it, but it's going to be mostly you doing the persuading." Ariel stared at the duo before questioning,

"Why do you want him to come, anyways?"

"We're tryin' to be friendly with your husband-to-be?" Linda offered.

"What my dear fellow here is trying to say is that we have a surprise for the both of you." Jennnifer replied, stifling her laughter.

"And we need the both of you." Linda added. Jenn nodded. Ariel peered at the two of them before slowly consenting,

"Alright, I guess, but don't expect much." The bell rang, shocking Linda again.

"Damn…I'm so out of it today." Linda muttered.

"Lindy, you're always out of it." Jenn said with a slight smirk.

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Pshh, I'm not getting into this again." Linda said, walking away from Jenn. She held up a hand and waved, not even looking backwards, "See ya next weekend, Ariel." Jennnifer broke out into jog after Linda and called back to Ariel.

"Gotta go! Can't leave Linda by herself, or else she might blow up the school or do something stupid of the sort." She gave a short wave before disappearing around the corner.

Ariel sighed and rubbed her forehead. Those two are impossible.

_**-End Flashback-**_

"Ariel? Hello?" Stephen waved his hand in front of Ariel's face. Ariel looked up. Stephen was standing in front of her holding a cup of water.

"What's with the water?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Umm…I was going to make tea?" She snatched the cup of water and raised her eyebrows,

"You were going to make tea with a cup of cold water?"

"Uhh…I like my tea cold."

"Were you going to throw this on me?" she took a step towards him.

"NO! Of course not! Well…uh…you were looking dazed…so I figured I'd refresh you!" She took another menacing step forward,

"Come here, Stephen." He backed away instinctively,

"UH! BATHROOM, GOTTA GO!" Before he could step away he was tackled to the ground by the small, but forceful girl. Ariel promptly dumped the cup of water on his head. She stood up and straightened her clothes.

"I'm going to call Jenn to tell her you're able to go." With his face glued to the ground and his head all wet, he could only answer with one word, which sounded oddly like an okay.

"Urgkay." It was going to be a long day.

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"Jenn! Where are we going? I can't see anything!" whined Ariel as she fiddled with her blindfold.

"I believe that's the whole point. And FYI, I just rolled my eyes," stated Linda.

"I don't like this one bit! I demand to know where we're going!" Ariel continued to whine and tried to struggle free from Jenn's grasp, but Jenn had a surprisingly strong grip on her.

"And if they don't tell us? You are not going to abandon me with these two psychotic people. Where's your sense of adventure?" Stephen finally spoke up and received an invisible glare from Ariel.

"Why do I have to be holding this guy?" Linda complained. "He's too tall for me."

"Or you're just too short, Lindy." Jennifer scoffed.

"Hey!"

As the four of them continued walking, Linda and Jennifer suddenly guided them into a car and shut the doors.

"JENNIFER, IF YOU'RE LEAVING ME HERE I SWEAR I'M GOING TO HIT YOU DURING LUNCH!" Ariel started screaming and surprised Stephen so much that he jumped from his seat and hit his head on the roof of the car.

"Golly, chill out Ariel, next time, Stephen might get a concussion."

"Yeah, dude. What was up with that?" grunted Stephen. With that, the car jolted to a start and they were off.

The car ride was uneventful, unless you counted the nonstop bickering (a scream from Ariel once in a while) between Ariel, Jennifer and Stephen, whilst Linda just sat there with her iPod, rolling her eyes.

"Linda! Help me here! They're gang—." Ariel was cut off as the car screeched to a stop, throwing her off balance and caused her to hit her head in the back of the seat in front of her.

"WELL! WE'RE HERE! Get out guys." Linda hissed, pulling her headphones out from her ears.

"Where exactly is here?" Stephen asked.

"Wait for it." As they shuffled out of the car, but not without a few swears and curses, Jenn and Linda led Ariel and Stephen to the entrance of "here".

"Ready? Ok!" They whipped off the blindfolds holding Ariel and Stephen captive. Ariel and Stephen both held hands up to their eyes, the glare from the lights affecting their eyes. They looked around scrutinizing their environment. It was a carnival. It was just like any other, it had lights, people, food, games, and disgustingly colorful clowns.

"Disgustingly colorful clowns?! Where'd that come from?!" Stephen exclaimed, looking around in surprise. Linda mumbled something unintelligible.

But what stood out the most was the magnificent Ferris wheel smack dab right in the middle of the fairgrounds. The slowly turning object of question was a sight to behold.

"A carnival?! You brought us here, blindfolded and me thinking we'd get kidnapped or something and you bring us to a CARNIVAL?!"" Ariel screeched loudly.

"Yo, chill Ariel, you'll thank us by the end of the day." Linda said, walking briskly towards the ticket booth.

"What is she talking about?" Ariel questioned.

"Uhh, no idea." Jennifer smiled.

"OOOOHHHH LOOK! THEY HAVE COTTON CANDY!" Stephen cried out.

"…" Jenn and Ariel looked at each other.

"What?" They simultaneously sighed and rubbed their temples in exasperation and both thought _"Boys."_

Linda came walking back with tickets to their relief.

"Stephen say something abnormally childish again?" It was more of a statement then a question.

"Yup." Ariel and Jenn replied.

"I AM NOT ABNORMALLY CHILDISH! I'M YOUNG AT HEART!" He yelled.

"Yeah, except in a weird way." Jenn snickered.

"HEY!" Linda sighed and beckoned them towards the entrance of the carnival.

"Let's go before you two break off into word play." Jenn scowled and commented,

"Which he'd never win."

"Ariel!" Stephen whined.

"Oh my god, let's go!" Ariel used her swimming muscles and pulled Stephen towards the entrance. Jenn and Linda looked at each other and grinned.

"This should be interesting." Linda muttered.

"It always is, Lindy, it always is." Jenn replied with a benevolent smile.

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It was getting dark. The full moon shone beautifully and stood brilliantly against the black sky. They had spent about the past 4 hours roaming around and squabbling to each other. Stephen was very happy, walking around with about 5 sticks of cotton candy and taking a bite from each once in a while. Ariel, on the other hand, was…still scolding Linda and Jennifer for scaring her.

"Awww, c'mon Ariel, it wasn't that scary!" Linda said, looking around.

"Yes, it was! It was practically a kidnapping!" Ariel snapped back.

"I would say it was a kidnapping, Ariel was screaming loud enough to make it sound like one." Jennifer smirked.

"I have good lungs! I use them!"

"Hey, Ariel! You want piece of cotton candy?" Stephen randomly asked.

"No thanks. How can you eat so much of that stuff? I like it and all but it's way too sweet.," Ariel commented as she looked over at him.

While they were talking, Linda had found the thing she had been looking for. She nudged Jenn, who was watching the little conversation amusedly.

"What?"

Linda pointed to the object.

Jennifer felt a huge grin take over her face.

"Hey guys! Let's go on the Ferris wheel!" Jennifer called over to the two.

"Huh?" Came the reply in unison.

"I'm sitting with Linda, so you two have to sit together."

"HUH?"

"Let's go, Lindy." They walked off towards the large attraction.

Stephen and Ariel looked at each other. Some bubble of realization burst in their minds. They scrambled after the two disappearing backs.

"WAIT!"

"I AM NOT SITTING WITH THIS COTTON CANDY EATING IDIOT."

"I AM NOT SITTING WITH THIS SCREAMING ASIAN LADY!" They both howled at the same time. Linda turned around abruptly with a sinister look on her face, causing Ariel to bump straight into her.

"Too Bad." And with that, she swiveled back towards the Ferris wheel. As the stumbling duo reached Jenn and Linda at the line for the ride, they heard Jennifer say suddenly,

"Hey I need to go to the bathroom, come with me." Linda shrugged and looked towards Ariel,

"You guys are alone then." She winked and turned to follow Jennifer. Before Ariel could reply, the ticket collector shuffled them into the ride.

"Keep all objects inside at all times!" he bellowed before he closed the door. The only exit was closed. Ariel then promptly shrieked her head off.

The cart they were in jerked into motion and slowly, but steadily started its ascent.

"Oh my god…I'm going to kill those two when I get my feet back on normal ground." Ariel groaned into her hands. All of a sudden, the cart shook and unexpectedly stopped all movement and was slowly swaying back and forth.

"WHAT THE FUUCCKK?" Stephen yelled.

_**-Minutes Ago-**_

"Are they on the ride yet?"

"Yeh."

"Good, let's go meet that ticket collector then."

A few seconds later, the whole ride had stopped with just a few words and maybe a few Andrew Jacksons aka ten dollar bills.

**_-Back to the Present, or shall we say the two stuck on the Ferris wheel?-_ **

Ariel was peering down at the crowd gathered around the Ferris wheel. What was strange, though, was that their cart happened to be at the very top of the rotating device. She looked at Stephen, who was looking around crazily.

_Should I jump? Maybe I should jump. It shouldn't be too ha—_

"Stephen! Get a hold of yourself!" Ariel interjected.

"I am SOOO going to murder those two!" Stephen murmured to himself, settling down a bit. Ariel sighed and leaned back into her seat, trying not to swing the cart too much. They both sat in silence, the carnival music wafting over their heads and into the night as the tension laid thick over them

"Umm, hey Stephen?" Ariel prodded hesitantly, breaking the silence.

"Hmm?"

"I, um, I didn't mean to call you a cotton candy eating idiot."

Stephen stared at her and, after a few seconds, started laughing.

Ariel looked at him in indignation before turning away and crossing her arms with a pout.

"I try apologizing, but you go ahead and start laughing at me!"

"Hahaha! I'm—I'm sorry, but I thought it was really funny when you called me that." Stephen chuckled, wiping away the tears he had shed while laughing. After he had finished saying that, Ariel had a broken grin on her face.

"It was kind of funny wasn't it?"

"Yeah, well I'm sorry for calling you a screaming Asian lady." Stephen apologized.

"Hmm, I am a bit of one aren't I?"

"Yes—er I mean kind of."Ariel laughed,

"Well, I'm sorry if I yelled too much today."

"Nothing the man' can't handle." He replied with a smile. Her eyebrows rose in question as she tried to hide her snicker,

"Oh? And who would that be?"

"Hey!" Stephen protested. Ariel burst out in a fit of laughter.

"Alright, truce?" Ariel held out her hand as she held herself with her other hand. Stephen contemplated a bit before giving in and agreeing.

"Now we have to do something about those two down there." They beamed at each other as the ride started up again.

**-Down at the bottom of the ride-**

"You think they settled it up there? Linda asked.

"Mmm, maybe. We'll have to see now don't we?" Jennifer said offhandedly, as she was searching for the people in question.

A moment later, the top cart of the Ferris wheel touched down onto the ground and Ariel and Stephen jumped out. Jennifer and Linda walked casually towards the other two.

"So, guys, how was the ride?" Linda questioned brightly. Ariel and Stephen gazed at each other before replying,

"It was fine."

"Now…about you two." Ariel said with a frighteningly sweet voice.

**END**

Hope you liked the 2nd installment of STEEL Ariel. Hearts, Linda and Jenn


End file.
